During her visit to a hospital on July 27 to meet people injured in the previous weeks’ violent protests, Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina claimed that her country was facing a conspiracy targeting its political stability and economic progress.
“It might be their conspiracy to make us again a nation of beggars by crippling the country’s economy completely,” she said. She asked that if economic destruction was not the motive, why did the protesters target essential infrastructure such as metro stations, hospitals, and expressways.
She blamed the opposition, the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) collaborating with the extremist groups such as Jamaat-e-Islami in infiltrating the legitimate protests carried out by the students to unleash widespread violence and destruction.
She wondered why the students, despite the government repeatedly stating in support of their demands of reforms in the quota system, failed to stop their agitation. She underlined that students refused to end their agitation even after the Supreme Court drastically reduced the quota to just 7%.
Bangladesh’s minister of state for information and broadcasting Mohammad Arafat too repeated the allegations in an interview with Al-Jazeera last Thursday.
“We are not referring to the students [as] terrorists and anarchists. It is the third party, those who intruded into this movement and started doing all this,” Arafat claimed. “Some people [were] trying to add fuel to the fire, [were] trying to create a situation where they can take advantage… and topple the government,” he went on to say.
The ruling Awami League, Sheikh Hasina’s party, published an article on its official website claiming the same. The article, “Quota Movement: the Blueprint for regime change in Bangladesh,” lists the major incidents during the violence showing the pattern claiming it proves the intention of the rioters to bring regime change in the country.
Supporting Sheikh Hasina’s claims, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) leader Md. Shazzad Hossain pointed out to Peoples Dispatch that several international diplomats, including the US State Department spokesperson, have spoken on the events of the previous weeks without trying to verify the facts, revealing their dislike towards the government in Bangladesh.
The US and several other countries had questioned the legitimacy of the last elections in January, in which Hasina’s Awami League was reelected for a fourth consecutive term.
Nevertheless, the country’s ministry of foreign affairs tried to find a conciliatory note on Monday by assuring international civil society and human rights groups that the situation in the country is turning back to normalcy. However, it countered the claims made by some international groups that widespread repression was carried out against the peaceful protesters.
International groups accuse Hasina government of human rights violations
The quota agitation, which was ongoing from the beginning of July, turned violent on July 15 leading, in the following days, to large-scale killings and destruction across the country.
The government suspended internet and communication for days, shut down universities and colleges for an indefinite period, imposed a curfew, deployed the armed forces, and issued shoot on sight orders following the declaration of a “complete shutdown” call given by the quota reform protesters on July 17 in opposition to violence allegedly carried out by the student and youth wings attached to the ruling Awami League.
As per the reports, over 160 people, a large number of them students, have been killed and hundreds of others were injured in firings carried out by the security forces since then.
The reports of violence against the protestors led to strong reactions from all democratic forces in the country. The Workers Party of Bangladesh (WPB) issued a statement on Sunday condemning the killing of a large number of protesters and demanding a judicial inquiry into the incidents leading to the killings and held the persons responsible for the same. It also asked for an immediate halt in the arrests and harassment of people undertaken by the authorities following the violence.
Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) had undertaken demonstrations against the violence too.
Several international organizations issued condemnations of violence against the protesters, with some even calling indirectly for regime change and sanctions against Bangladesh’s security forces, and accusing the Hasina government of indulging in systematic violations of human rights and autocratic practices.
“Now is the time for influential governments to press Sheikh Hasina to stop her forces from brutalizing students and other protesters,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director of HRW. Ganguly also called for sanctions against Bangladesh security forces.
A group of UN experts issued a statement last Thursday, demanding an independent probe into accusations of violence. They alleged that the Bangladesh government has no credibility in such matters, and cannot be trusted.
“We are deeply concerned by reports of targeted attacks, threats, intimidation, and retaliation by the authorities and Government-aligned groups against protest leaders, political activists, human rights defenders and journalists,” the statement reads.
Volker Turk, UN Human Rights chief, too asked for an independent investigation into the alleged human rights violations during the state’s crackdown on the protesters.
“We understand that many people were subjected to violent attacks by groups reportedly affiliated with the Government, and no effort was made to protect them,” Turk said in the statement on Thursday.
